Crime is one of the most important topics when you talk about the 1920's. The crime rate was very high; the people were upset with the stock market crash and just felt the need to rebel in a way. The 1920's brought a lot of gangsters such as Al Capone, mobsters, and Italian anarchist.


Al Capone was one of the biggest gangsters of the 1920's. He ran all the major nightclubs, speakeasies, brothels, and breweries in town. He had Chicago wrapped around his finger. Crime was going up and up then police at times wasn't able to handle it. They were powerless against all the new artillery that mobsters had.

Crime in the 1920's was happening everywhere, such as in NYC were the Wall Street bombing occurred killing 38 people and injuring 400. They believe it was the galvanisms (Italian anarchists). The bomb killed mostly messengers, stenographers, clerks and brokers. It caused over $2 million in property damage. The bomb had about 100 pounds of dynamite; it was carried on a wagon it set off at 12:01.

Prohibition and bootlegging was also appearing thought out America. Illegal moonshine was being sold at speakeasies that weren't even supposed to be in business, but the people wanted alcohol and alcohol they got. Moon shining was an illegal business because you didn’t know what was in it. It was usually done in a bathtub or sink. Who knows what ingredients were infusing? That’s why the government made it illegal.

Just about everything was illegal in the 1920's they were going thru drastic changes from the stock market crash to the great depression. From politics to world war I. the lifestyles were changing people were losing money left to right. Unemployment was also affecting the crisis in the 1920s. But crime was the worst.